Posts Tagged With: honor

Today, we return to one of the most foundational teachings of Jesus. As countercultural as this message is, we need a regular booster of this message:

I’m telling you the solemn truth: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains all by itself. If it dies, though, it will produce lots of fruit. If you love your life, you’ll lose it. It you hate your life in this world, you’ll keep it for the life of the coming age. If anyone serves me, they must follow me. Where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the father will honor them. (12:24-26)

Before a fire

Two summers ago, my family took an incredible trip to the western United States. We hit six national parks, the Rockies, and terrain unlike anything we had ever seen before. Beautiful! While in Yellowstone National Park, we learned much about the fires of 1988 that ravaged 36% percentage of that 2-million-plus-acre wilderness park. I was especially intrigued by the fact that the pine seeds in the cones of the lodgepole pines that are especially numerous in Yellowstone can only be released from the cones when subjected to intense heat, like the kind found in a forest fire. This is the very warp and woof of nature: as one tree is destroyed it is releasing the seeds of many others in its stead. Jesus — the creator of those trees — knew, taught and exemplified this truth as well.

After a fire

Far too often we want the honor in verse 26 without the service and loss mentioned in the rest of this verse above. We want fruit, but don’t want the wheat to die. We want life in the coming age, but we also want to keep it right here and now too, instead of laying it down.

New life after a fiery death (Yellowstone National Park)

But here is Jesus reminding us that nothing of spiritual worth, nothing that brings life, nothing that lasts in the coming age will come without sacrifice and self-denial. In our relationships. In our careers. In our families and churches. In our souls. In our communities. Everywhere. This truth is tied into the very flow of nature.

There was a real question in Paul’s mind about the degree to which a Christian could follow the cultural norm. That by itself is a point some Christians in this world need to bear in mind. If we think we can be an everyday Christian and an everyday American or Canadian or Filipino or Saudi Arabian, we are kidding ourselves. Nonetheless, there were still many details to work out about this point, and the Corinthians were slowly sorting through the details with Paul’s help.

Paul gives a foundational principle for ethics in this chapter, though:

So, then, whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything to God’s glory. (10:31)

As a Christian sorts out how to live everyday life, there is a guiding principle that is more important that was is lawful (c.f., 10:23), more important that what is right or wrong, more important that what one has the right to do, more important that even our own preferences and desires. Before asking what we want to do, we need to ask whether something brings glory to God. Does this make God look good? Does this draw people closer to God or further away?

The Corinthians needed to bear that in mind as they determined what kinds of food to eat, and when and where to eat it. They need to remember this when they lived in community with each other and influenced the behavior of their brothers and sisters. They needed to remember this as they decided how to interact socially in church and how to view the worth and acceptance of others. Does this bring glory to God?